Pornography Isn't Just Sexist; It's Sex without Love⤒🔗

Most people don't like to be told what to. They think people should mind their own business and leave others alone. To each his own. So some people strongly object to efforts to restrain pornography because they feel their free­dom is being invaded by others — it's no­body's business but their own if they use pornography.  Pornography is a harm­less pastime.

But pornography is a form of propa­ganda promoting a particular view of human life, and it's not a good view. Many feminists have realized this and have led efforts to ban or restrict pornog­raphy in Canada and the USA. One prominent American feminist academic, Catherine MacKinnon, was particularly influential in the Canadian Supreme Court's 1992 Butler decision which basi­cally ratified the government's power to restrict pornography in Canada. Despite being American, she contributed heavily to a legal brief that convinced the court of the feminist view.

Feminists oppose pornography largely because they see it as promoting inequality between men and women. Pornography is a means by which men dominate women. Women are just pre­sented as objects for the pleasure and sat­isfaction of men. Or as MacKinnon puts it, pornography "institutionalizes the sexuality of male supremacy"

But What If We Objectify Everyone?←↰⤒🔗

Of course, it's good that many femi­nists oppose pornography — the more opposition to pornography the better. But as conservative political scientist Harry Clor points out in his book Public Morality and Liberal Society, the feminist critique of pornography is inadequate. Because it is based on the view that pornography is bad primarily because it promotes the inequality of women, pornography that portrays women as equal to men would actually be accept­able to feminists.

That assumption is implicit in the oft-repeated claim that 'pornography is not about sex; it is about power.' Take away the male power — equalize the status of women and men in sexual representations and in society — ­and there is no problem remaining.

Many feminists recognize and en­dorse this reasoning. In their view sexual images can be produced that don't de­mean women or portray them as being dominated, and these images are there­fore okay. They call this kind of stuff "erotica" rather than pornography, but the only apparent difference is that in­equality between the sexes is not being promoted. So it's the message advocated by sexual representation (not necessarily the sexual representation itself) that is opposed by feminists.

The feminist critique of porn breaks down at this point. If equality is the key issue in this debate, it "might actually mean nothing more than the even­handed objectification of everyone." As long as men are not in control of the women or dominating the women in sex­ual imagery, there is no problem, accord­ing to the feminist view.

Where's the Love?←↰⤒🔗

The conservative critique of pornog­raphy is much more substantial than the idea that it demeans women, which, of course, it does do. Human beings have many natural physical desires that must be controlled in order for people to live to­gether in community, including thirst, hunger, and other bodily needs.

But sex­ual desire "unlike other sensual appetites (eating, for example), is an appetite oriented to and involving another person."

In the proper form of sexuality, the two people involved care for each other, respect each other, and have a life-long commitment to each other known as marriage. Love between two people is absolutely central to this con­cept of sexuality. And in Christian marriage, love often means prioritizing the needs of the other spouse ahead of one's own needs.

But love is completely excluded from the sexuality involved in pornography. In­deed, the central purpose of pornogra­phy is "to arouse an elemental passion for other people's bodies independently of any affection or regard for a particular person." This is achieved through "a heavy emphasis on the observable exter­nals, hence the animal and mechanical dimensions, of sexuality, and the depic­tion of its subjects as things to be used for the gratification of the user." Other peo­ple are just objects.

It Has an Impact←↰⤒🔗

This kind of thing is profoundly anti­social. How could people live harmo­niously together in community if each person views others as "things" for his or her own use? Other people exist only to serve his or her needs. That is the message of pornography.

Insofar as it appeals to strong primitive impulses that civiliza­tion seeks (with difficulty) to control or refine, pornography is anti-civilization.

Many people deny that pornography is harmful. It is "victimless" they say. What harm could there be in looking at pictures or watching movies? It doesn't cause anybody to run out and rape or molest someone. At least that can't be proven by strict scientific standards. But this kind of argument runs counter to the common aphorism, "garbage in, garbage out." Whatever people view or watch, whether in a magazine, television, or on the Internet, influences what they think about. As Clor states, it is virtually self-evident "that man, the image-making and image-using animal, can be influ­enced for good and ill by images."

Pornography is becoming increas­ingly ubiquitous in Canada and in other countries — on television, on billboards, and especially on the Internet. This is bound to influence some people. Clor writes that "almost everyone believes (and acts upon the belief in one way or another) that the cultural milieu is a fac­tor in the shaping of attitudes and moral sensibilities — an educator or mis-educa­tor." So the increasing presence of pornography and pornographic images contributes to the declining morality of our country.

Pornography is not harmless. It pro­motes an anti-social view of other people. Many feminists have recognized this, at least in part. But the conservative critique is considerably more substantial than the feminist critique. From the conserva­tive perspective, "pornography is appro­priately restricted largely because of its long-range effects upon attitudes and feelings in certain sensitive matters of vital social interest." We can judge things by their fruit, and the fruit of pornogra­phy is evil. In fact, it would be true to say that pornography itself is evil.